~A~
Bathing Miss Beifong
~A~
"... smells a little ripe around here," Katara muttered under her breath as she cut a glare sideways at the lounging Toph, who pinged her with a pebble for her trouble.
"Quiet, Miss Fussybritches. So I don't like to splash around in the water like you do. Deal with it."
"Toph, if you get even one more layer of dirt on you, you're going to start sprouting vegetation!" Katara shot back, arms folded across her chest in aggravation. "And if the stench gets any worse, you'll smell like a panda-pig pen!"
Aang and Sokka snickered, at which the girl sent a small shower of pebbles their way, grinning sassily as the two scrambled up from their spots to try to avoid getting smacked. "I'm an earthbender. Dirt is my friend."
"But it's not our friend," Sokka said in an annoyed tone as he felt his poor abused head for damage.
The blind girl shrugged carelessly. "That's not my problem."
"What are you complaining about?" Aang grumbled sourly at the water tribe teen, his hands also busy feeling around his scalp for scrapes or bumps. "At least you've got hair to sort of cushion the blows."
"So grow it out, baldy," Sokka shot back.
Before the two could start arguing Katara summoned a small water-whip warningly, and the two went silent, eyeing her warily.
Toph shifting once more pulled their attention back to her, and a cloud of dust and dank, musty smells wafted enthusiastically around her. The other three members of the gang immediately scooted to the far side of the little camp, positioning themselves downwind of the younger girl and next to Appa, who'd been smart enough to stay downwind of the earthbender from the moment they'd set up camp. Momo joined them there, curling up on the bison's head after chittering in reprimand at the girl.
They spent the rest of the evening glaring at the earthbender...
Who didn't really care.
~A~
The next morning Toph blew out of her earth tent and stretched, grinning. She was in a mighty fine mood, and nothing was going to get her down today – not even her grouchy friends. With a sunny smile she walked off into the woods to find a little privacy and just enough water to brush her teeth. While she loved the dirt she didn't like it in her mouth, and her teeth were always sparkly clean - even if they were the only things on her that were.
The minute she disappeared the other three members of the team were out of their blankets with their heads together. "So we all know what to do?" Sokka whispered, and the other two grinned and nodded. "Then let's get to it!"
Katara headed immediately for the river they'd camped near to wait for the signal from Aang. The avatar floated himself silently up into the top of a tree along the path that Toph had disappeared down, and Sokka stationed himself a little further down that same path, loitering there so he could warn the younger teen when the girl got close.
"What are you doing, Boomerang Boy?" Toph asked as she came upon him, and he whirled, clearing his throat like he'd been about to use the little boy bushes before she'd come along and was dreadfully embarrassed by her interruption.
"What am I doing?" he yelled, seemingly irate. "I'm trying to take care of some personal business, if you must know, Toph!" he replied loftily, hoping he'd been loud enough for Aang to hear.
He had been, and as soon as the boy heard the older teen's voice he sent a burst of air towards Katara, who he could just make out in the river shallows a little distance away.
The moment the funnel of air breezed over her, she bent two nice, big blobs of water from the river, bending some soap into one and then sending them both back to the monk, who caught them and waited quietly for their dirty friend to pass beneath the tree.
The startled shriek lifting over the wilderness was the signal that operation 'Bathing Miss Beifong' was a success, and by the time Aang floated down from the tree the other two were already gathered around the very angry, soaked, but clean Toph and laughing like hyena-lizards.
There was little in the way of warning but the dangerous expression on the waterlogged girl's face – which really didn't help the three teens laughing their heads off since her hair was now covering most of it and making her look like a drowned leopard-rat – but the giggling stopped quite abruptly as a nice, long shower of dirt suddenly rained down on them from out of nowhere.
It was dead silent for a couple of seconds, and then the forest rang with the enraged shout of "Toph!" that came from Katara's throat as the fine soil the other girl had dumped on them trickled down into her hair, through her undergarments, and into unmentionable places that were now very itchy and uncomfortable.
"What? You douse me, I douse you. Now we're even." She began to stomp off, snapping over her shoulder, "And stop glaring at me – it's not like I can even see it, so you're just wasting energy – energy you're going to need to go get clean again."
The three now very dirty teens muttered a few choice swear words they weren't really supposed to know at their ages as they sulked their way to the river to get cleaned back up, Toph's name liberally sprinkled here and there between said swear words.
~A~
"... know how hard it was to get all that dirt off me?" Aang growled at a once-again lounging Toph.
Katara shot the monk a deadpan glare as she combed through her still-damp locks. "What are you complaining about? At least you don't have hair for it to get into! Do you know how long it took to get all that dirt out of it?"
"Do you know how long it took me to get all that dirt into my hair?" Toph interrupted before the airbender could reply, and Aang, Katara, and Sokka just stared at the younger girl in bemused silence, unable to think of anything to say in return. "You keep your water away from me, and I'll keep my dirt away from you. Deal?"
"Only if you keep your smell away from us, too," Sokka groused... only to gulp and close his mouth as Toph lifted a finger and more dirt rose to hover over the now-cringing teen's head.
"Keep it to yourself, Sokka, or get doused again. Your choice."
No one said a word.